At the outbreak of WW1 in August 1914 Sir
Thomas MacKenzie, the New Zealand High Commissioner in London, called a
meeting of his fellow countrymen at the Westminster Palace Hotel in
Victoria to discuss how best to assist wounded New Zealand servicemen.
The formation of the New Zealand War Contingent Association
(NZWCA) was
the outcome of the meeting, with various committees being formed to
deal with specific tasks. An ex-Governor of New Zealand, Lord
Plunkett, was elected Chairman of the general committee, while Lady
Islington, the wife of another ex-Governor, became head of the Ladies'
Committee.

The Association expected that its members
would provide comforts for the troops, visit them in hospital and find
accommodation for convalescents, and also keep in touch with the
soldiers and their relatives. Large consignments of clothing were
sent to troops based at Gallipoli and Egypt. However, by 1915,
the Association's work had greatly developed as the need for its
services increased. Following the Gallipoli campaign, it was
thought advisable to establish a hospital specifically for New Zealand
casualties.

In August 1914, after the declaration of
war, the War Office had requisitioned the Mount Felix estate to house
British troops. It contained a large Italianate villa in
extensive
grounds and had originally been bought by a syndicate intending to
convert it into a
riverside country club. The principal rooms of the villa were a
large reception hall, dining and drawing rooms, and morning, writing
and billiard rooms. There were 29 bed and dressing rooms and 6
bathrooms. The out-buildings consisted of a laundry, a dairy
farmery, a gardener's house, a coach house, a garage and stabling for
21 horses. The property lay
between the approach to the Walton bridge and the River Thames, at
Walton-on-Thames. It had two carriage drives with three lodges.
By November some 1,200 soldiers were billeted
there.

In June 1915, after
the British troops had moved out, the War Office offered the estate to
the New
Zealand War Contingent Association for use as a military hospital.
Lady Islington undertook its conversion and
refurbishment into a 350-bedded hospital with a large operating theatre.

The New Zealand War Contingent Hospital
(although it was generally known as the New
Zealand Walton Hospital) was
officially opened in August 1915 by the High Commissioner, Sir Thomas
MacKenzie, with Lord Plunkett in attendance. It was the first
hospital established
in the United Kingdom specifically for war casualties from New Zealand,
and was pronounced a 'model hospital' by the British military medical
authorities. Within two days of its opening, the first patients
arrived from Gallipoli. One of the wounded from the campaign was
the son of the High Commissioner, who lost his sight.

The cost of the hospital was borne by the
people of New Zealand and those New Zealanders living in Britain, with
occasional small grants from the NZWCA. The Chief Medical Officer
was a New
Zealander, while three-quarters of the staff belonged to, or were
associated, with New Zealand. The
nursing staff were accommodated in the mansion house, while houses in
Walton were rented to house male and female administrators.

On 3rd August 1915 the King and Queen, with
the Prince of Wales, visited the Hospital and spent the afternoon
there, speaking to every soldier. In October 1915 the first death
occurred, of
a badly wounded soldier, who was buried in Walton cemetery with full
military honours. The Gallipoli campaign ended in December 1915
and the New Zealanders were sent to fight in northern France and
Flanders.

The 18 acres of grounds at Mount Felix,
enclosed by a brick wall,
contained gardens with flower beds, fine old trees and green fields.
Convalescing servicemen could enjoy walks and, since one side of
the grounds ran down to the Thames, boating became a popular pastime.

In January 1916 five large
ward huts
made from timber and asbestos panels were built on open land lying to
the south of
Bridge Street, between Oatlands Drive and the River Thames, increasing
the bed capacity to 1,040. The huts, which could each accommodate 40 to
50 patients, were linked to the main buildings north of Bridge
Street by a
covered walkway and a footbridge. Patients with infectious
diseases were
kept in a special ward. The hutted area, named
Anzac Mount, also contained
a cookhouse.

By April 1916 some 3,000 New Zealand casualties were being treated in
various British hospitals and, in May, a New Zealand Medical Board was
established with a view to setting up further hospitals for New Zealand
troops. In August a new hospital opened at Brockenhurst in the
New Forest in Hampshire, which was designated the No. 1 New Zealand
General Hospital.
The Hospital at Mount Felix was then renamed the No. 2 New
Zealand General Hospital, when it came under the control of the New
Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Wounded servicemen who arrived in Dover were brought to
Mount Felix, while those arriving in Southampton were sent to
Brockenhurst.

The Battle of the Somme, which began in July 1916, had greatly
increased casualties. More huts were built in October 1916,
giving 500 extra beds, and the New Zealand Medical Board acquired
a large hotel at Oatlands Park,
a short distance west of Mount Felix, to increase accommodation.
The hotel was converted for hospital use. Mainly amputees,
and medical and TB cases, were admitted there. Workshops and
educational classes were established to enable convalescent amputees to
learn new skills for future employment outside the army.

As with the other large military general hospitals, there were special
departments for X-ray, pathology, massage and electrical treatment, as
well as for eye injuries and ear, throat and nose disorders.
Accommodation had also been made available for 50 officers.

In 1919 a serious fire destroyed five Hospital marquees and a
considerable amount of equipment.
The number of patients being treated was gradually decreased and the
No. 2 New Zealand Hospital closed in March 1920 (Oatlands Park Hospital
had closed in September 1919). Between them, by the end of the
war, they had had nearly 1,900 beds and some 27,000 patients had been
treated during their operational life.

Present
status (April 2010)

In 1965 the Mount Felix estate, which
was owned by the local council, was sold for housing development.
However, a fire in 1966 badly damaged the mansion house and it
had to be demolished.

A plaque in commemoration
of the New Zealanders was rescued from the house and placed in the
new Walton Town Hall in New Zealand Avenue. The plaque reads: "This
tablet is erected AD 1921 by the inhabitants of Walton-upon-Thames to
commemorate their 27000 fellow subjects from the Dominion of New
Zealand who wounded or disabled in the Great War 1915-1918 were cared
for in the military hospitals at Mount Felix and Oatlands Park.
Seventeen of these men lie buried in Walton cemetery. Their
bodies are buried in peace but their name liveth for evermore".
(When the Town Hall was demolished, the plaque was donated to Elmbridge
Museum.)

The only surviving estate buildings
are the clock tower, the brewhouse and laundry, which later became a
coach house, and the stables, which had been converted into six houses
in 1929.

Wacker Chemicals bought the clock tower and
coach house in 1979 for use as a local base The buildings
have been restored (a
replacement bell was cast at the original foundry and rehung in the
tower) and are now used as offices by the
firm. The development is known as The Clock Tower.
The 1870 gate posts for the original driveway to the estate near the
junction of Bridge Street and Oatlands Drive, just before Walton
Bridge, still remain. The posts bear the coat-of-arms (now badly
eroded) of the Ingram family who bought the estate in 1868.
Behind the gate posts is a large housing development.
A surviving old house at the east end of Mount Felix (left).
A footpath from the foreshore of the river may be bordered with
the original wall of the estate (right).
The River Thames seen from the Mount Felix foreshore.

The Mount Felix area seen from the foreshore of the Thames.

The likely site of the hutted extension to the Hospital across Bridge
Road.

The present Mount Felix - a cul-de-sac.

Looking up New Zealand Avenue, a new road built in the 1930s and named
in memory of the site's history (left). Houses at the foot of New
Zealand Avenue (right).

The Wellington public
house, once known as The Kiwi,
at the top of New Zealand Avenue (left). The Wellington, as seen from the
War Memorial opposite (right).

Water meadows near Walton Bridge.

The river frontage as seen from Walton Bridge.

St Mary's Church
cemetery
Anzac Day (25th April) commemorates the day that soldiers from the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) first landed at Gallipoli
to fight the Turks.

Since 1920, on this day, a service at St Mary's Church
in Walton is held in memory of the New Zealanders who were treated at
the Hospital following the campaign. By the west door of the
church is the ANZAC Memorial for those who died at the Hospital and are
buried in the cemetery adjacent to the church in Terrace Road.

The west front of St Mary's Church
(left). The ANZAC memorial plaque inside the west door (right).

The ANZAC memorials in the graveyard.

The memorials list the names of the New Zealanders who died at
Mount Felix.

A memorial tree planted in what is now
the car park of the nearby Homebase store.

The memorial plaque by the foot of the
tree.

References

Smith
J 1996 Monograph No. 58.
Auxiliary and Military Hospitals in Weybridge and Walton during
the First World War. Walton and Weybridge Local History
Society.